it is time we started to learn how to sustain rather than destroy the planet. — Walmart profits at the expense of working class consumers, its own employees, and US taxpayers, through the US tax and benefits systems. — While the common perception is that the US is on the wrong track, actually it is doing very well, relatively speaking. — A million veterans are uninsured because they do not qualify for Medicaid and are unable to afford private insurance, or because they are unaware that they are eligible. — Sau Paulo, a city of 20 million people responsible for a fifth of Brazil’s GDP, is running out of water. — Washington maintains an inclination to fantasize about the reality of not just Iraq, but the Middle East as a whole. — The resignation of Chuck Hagel in the context of US national security policy. — Kissinger discusses some of his ideas from his recent book “World Order”.

Recent remarks by Bill Clinton reinforce the sense that he fails to appreciate the reality of economic life for most Americans. — The major population challenge we face is found in two contrasting trends taking place in developed and developing countries. — The climate accord between the US and China is not that groundbreaking, but is an optimistic basis for negotiations of a new climate treaty in Paris next year. — The difficulty of setting fair emissions reduction goals for individual countries, and a method to overcome that difficulty. — Disconnect between actual efforts to regulate the use of drones and the specific nature of problem that must be regulated. — The problem with Obama’s immigration order is that it is impermanent and can easily be undone. — MIT Technology Review posits that it is difficult to know which authors to read and thinks an algorithm might help. — The massive growth of investment in arts museums and facilities at elite US universities.

A cover-up surrounding the settlement between JPMorgan Chase and the Justice Department exposed. — Food goliath Unilever sues the San Francisco start-up behind vegan product Just Mayo arguing it is made without eggs and shouldn’t be allowed to be called mayo. — US Defense Department must build stronger relationships with commercial tech companies like Google. — Palestinian youth draw attention to what they call the “apartheid wall”. — The public has failed to question the US’s entrance into another war without end in the Middle East. — The military must develop enhanced psychological understanding if it is to successfully confront the challenges of modern warfare. — Watching films that provide an image of greater human capability than exists in reality causes us to overestimate our ability to be efficient. — Scientists have managed to control a person’s hand movement using a brain signal sent over the internet from someone else.

The discrepancy between the development of tax avoidance mechanisms and the legislation to govern those mechanisms. — Students with private loans often do not have the benefit of flexible payment plans, causing them to default on those loans. — Growing pressure on ECB President Draghi to engage in a large scale bond buying program to stimulate the European economy. — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report describes the consequences of not reducing emissions. — The US political system continues to fail in long-term planning and execution. — Smaller county elections can be overlooked in the media, but some of these are important bell-weathers for state-wide results. — Judicial elections are starting to resemble congressional elections, increasingly reliant on campaign funding from donors. — To create a habitable, stable, free, and prosperous world it will be necessary to think more strategically.

A series of essays on Brookings’ website that discuss issues surrounding character, particularly its relationship to opportunity. — Several problems and the risk of failure of industrial world economies. — President Obama should offer clemency to Edward Snowden. — We need to stop thinking dictatorships are the worst thing going, they aren’t, civil war and chaos are worse. — Twelve Nobel laureates write to Obama arguing that the US’s use of torture is particularly troubling for the precedent it sets and urge him to release the Senate’s CIA Torture Report. — Americans are disenchanted with government and public institutions. — While US airstrikes may have killed as many as 500 ISIL fighters, it is thought that as many as 6,000 new recruits joined ISIL in July alone. — Laura Poitras’ film “Citizenfour” is perhaps most remarkable for its presentation of the modern state as something of a terrifying abstraction.

Fiduciaries should divest from fossil fuels to counter the rising costs of climate change. — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to establish land and maritime trade routes in the mould of the old Silk Road. — Privacy protections are needed to protect people from data miners, brokers and resellers. — Flexibility in the debtor/creditor relationship is needed to prevent conflict. — The pesticides that have been killing off bees and harming other creatures don’t make a blind bit of difference to crop yields. — Elizabeth Warren may be what will be needed to get Democrats out in sufficient numbers for the midterm elections. — Unchecked corporate power undermines democracy and what can be done about it. — Liberal ideas that evil is something that can be eradicated may be misguided and damaging.

Voting is commonly held to undergird the functioning of a democracy, but in practice is all something of a sham. — The Ebola virus may mutate in time to become airborne but has not yet been seen to have done so. — Southern California Edison has amassed 600,000 lithium-ion battery cells to store power generated from wind turbines. — The problems dominating current headlines are relatively limited in their scope, unless we screw them up. — Things started going downhill for Europeans when Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. — Germany must counter the danger posed by its citizens becoming radicalized without itself becoming extremist. — A new study shows the major determinant of conflict-free stability since 1950 is increased trade. — The University of London is undermining the financial viability of the Warburg Institute’s world-renowned library.

Analysis of ammunition captured from ISIS shows that almost a fifth of it was manufactured by two US companies. — Five points from the IMF’s downgraded forecast for global growth. — As a complex branched molecule, iso-propyl cyanide is the closest we’ve come to seeing molecules of the type necessary to support life elsewhere in the galaxy. — It is probable that human emissions of greenhouse gases have contributed to if not caused the California drought. — Action on climate change is a huge opportunity for growth in the short and long terms. — The implications of the Republicans taking a majority in the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. — Industry trade groups are suing to have Seattle’s minimum wage increase found to be in violation of the 14th Amendment. — Current efforts to undermine civil society in favor of a more authoritarian model.

John Oliver questions whether we need to rethink a policy that causes children to fear a blue sky. — The imbalance of interests taking part in negotiations of the largest two trade agreements ever. — Recent G-20 efforts to get multinational corporations to pay more taxes. — The World Wildlife Fund presents its findings regarding major wildlife population losses over the last 40 years. — US military involvement in Syria can be expected to last potentially for decades. — White House to require federal agencies to provide details about drones. — Eric Holder would do John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales proud. — The government, like the corporations it inadequately regulates, is treating education as a profit center.

Gordon Curran Stewart, the founder of Philipstown.info, The Paper, and The Next Deal, died early Wednesday morning, Nov. 26. He was 75 and had suffered from emphysema. He was a man whose life included various and enriching paths, interests and pursuits. Before he moved to Philipstown, Stewart’s career path took him on a long and winding road from his Chicago birthplace to, among other places, Vienna, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Along the way he studied in graduate programs focusing on literature, history and music. At various times he was a theater and film director, a screenplay writer, a trained concert conductor, a mayoral aide, a presidential speechwriter, a stock exchange official, the CEO of a major insurance trade association and the chairman of a pension management firm. Whether the commonplace or the extraordinary, civic, political, cultural, social or personal, Stewart reveled in the details of life in his local community, the direction of the country and the fate of the world.…